Mysterious Marvel Set Photos Tease Nick Fury and Maria Hill’s Return

It’s been a long while since we’ve seen our old S.H.I.E.L.D. pals Nick Fury and Maria Hill. The characters, played by Samuel L. Jackson and Cobie Smulders (respectively, of course), haven’t appeared in the MCU since 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron. That’s not too far back in mere mortal years, but Marvel has released six movies since then, so it feels a lot longer. Thankfully, they’ll both be back in action shortly, as evidenced by some interesting new set photos.

What makes these pics from Just Jared particularly notable — aside from the fact that Nick Fury is sporting both of his eyeballs (more on that in a moment) — is that it’s not immediately clear which Marvel project they’re filming:

Here’s what we do know: A Twitter user spotted Captain Marvel co-director Ryan Fleck on set in Atlanta, where the set pics were taken. Other photos show Jackson wearing Nick Fury’s signature eyepatch, while Smulders is rocking a very ’90s turtleneck — making it difficult to pin down when this scene takes place.

Captain Marvel isn’t set to begin filming until next month, but as the same Twitter user points out, this could very well be a post-credits scene for an upcoming Avengers sequel. My money’s on Infinity War. We know Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers is set to join the team for Avengers 4, and with her solo movie gearing up to film in a couple of weeks, an inevitable overlap in cast / crew would allow for Ryan Fleck (and co-director Anna Boden) to shoot a post-credits teaser for Captain Marvel.

Those scenes are typically filmed after principal photography, usually during the reshoot and post-production stage — and for Infinity War, that’d be right around now. As to why Nick Fury has two eyes in some photos and an eyepatch in others: Could be nothing, but it might also confirm a rumor about Infinity War’s plot dealing with time travel.

We’ll find out soon enough, when Avengers: Infinity War (starring almost literally every Marvel character) hits theaters on May 4.